March In The Garden - Seed Sowing

This month has been mostly about seed sowing.

I went out and bought another heated propagator, as I don't have any form of heating in my greenhouse.

I have sowed a variety of tomato called Cossack. I don't know anything about this variety, apart from it's supposed to be earlier fruiting and very tasty. This year I have gone for a cordon variety, so my greenhouse doesn't become a jungle and with less foliage than the bush varieties, I am hoping for less places for caterpillars to hide.

I am trying a different type of chilli this year as well. I have gone for a more mild poblana type, as I still have a bag of very hot chillies in the freezer from the year before last!

The last vegetable to be sown this month has been a brussels sprout called Bosworth. This is a first for me, as I have never grown them before and it's only in the last couple of years, that I have liked the taste of the humble sprout. To be truthful I hadn't even tried them and decided that I didn't like them, so when I did try one, cooked properly, I actually liked it. It will be interesting to see if home grown sprouts, taste better than shop bought ones, as most home grown vegetables do.

I have also been sowing flowers in my heated propagator. I have sown snapdragons and nicotiana sylvestris. Both of these I hope will be in flower come the beginning of September for my wedding. It's going to be a bit of a gamble but nothing ventured and all that.

This week was a very proud moment for me, as I was invited to attend the press launch of the National Garden Scheme Yellow Book in London.

It's the 3rd year that my garden photography has been chosen to be featured in the Yellow Book and supporting this charity with my photography, is an absolute joy to do.

Knitson Old Farmhouse, in the Purbecks and Tanglefoot near Winchester, are the two gardens I photographed for the NGS. Both gardens are open again this year with a further 3,798 around the country and details of all of these can be found in the Yellow Book, online and now available as an iPhone app.

This year the NGS have been going for 85 years, so it's a very special year for them, as 120 gardens which were part of the scheme in 1927, will be open to the public. Some of them have opened ever since then but some are opening especially to celebrate this special year.

With next week being Easter weekend, I hope to be out enjoying the garden. I have my onion sets ready to go into the ground (another first for me) and more seed sowing.

Exciting times ahead!

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